Angels in Alaska

I love CrossFit. I have been doing CrossFit for about 6 months, and I think it is the greatest thing ever. Here are my 4 favorite things about it.

1. Lifting weights. I had never really lifted weights before this and it feels fantastic. We do squats, deadlifts, and press, but mostly squats. I had never done a squat before walking into the gym. I feel so strong. My body feels happy and I have something to measure my progress by. I have learned how to keep my knees over my toes to avoid injury. I am learning fundamental body mechanics and gaining strength to keep myself safe.

Here is a chart of my 1 rep max (RM) for a series of lifts, the first one I measured, the most recent one I measured, and the % increase.

	Deadlift	Back squat	Split jerk	Overhead squat	Shoulder press	Power clean	Squat snatch	Clean and jerk
First 1 RM (lbs)	145	105	80	45	45	65	45	65
Mid year 1RM (lbs)	183	120	93	65	53	90	55	88

% increase	26	14	16	44	18	38	22	35

On mornings when I get a 1RM, I walk into the office on air. How about that world, I just did something better than I've ever done it before, now I'm ready to start my day, I think I can handle anything.

2. Hard work is fun. That's what dad always says and it's true. On Wednesday we did a really hard workout. After warm up for 15 - 20 mins, and then working on back squats for 20 mins, we completed the following:
1000m row followed by a front squat/box jump sequence.
10 front squats - 2 box jumps
9 front squats - 4 box jumps
8 front squats - 6 box jumps
etc. down to
1 front squat - 20 box jumps

And it was timed. It took me 18 mins and then I collapsed on the floor.
It felt amazing to be done. I was proud to have completed it and there is just something great about having a reason to push yourself.

3. Together but individualized. Wednesday's workout wouldn't have been nearly as fun for me to complete by myself. But I had Lissa, Joy, Maeve, Karl, and David all working along side me and our coach Angie keeping us safe. Everyone is at a different level, so everyone uses a different amount of weight for the front squat and/or scale for the box jump, but we're all pushing through the same challenge together. Being around all those people, and completing a difficult task together inspires and motivates me.

4. Physicality. Of course one of the main reasons I wanted to start CrossFit was to look good. (Who doesn't like looking good?). I actually felt like I looked pretty good before I started, but I knew I was artificially shaped like a barbie from breastfeeding and when I stopped (which I did in April) I wanted to have some other features about myself to feel proud of.
Being pregnant and post-pregnant makes me proud of my body because I just created and then sustained a tiny human. So now I wanted my body to represent something new I had worked hard to do. I knew feeling strong would combat any weight gain or attribute loss I was likely to go through after 13 months of breastfeeding.
I am big on time lapse photography, so of course I have a comparison picture from the last 6 months. (Since the last post was Van in 15 pairs of underwear, I figure it's ok to show me in my bikini bottom and sports bra)

The best part about this is my posture, I can tell how good this is for my body because my natural stance is much straighter.

The front picture is a little more subtle. For the first month of the program, as a test, I didn't eat any sugar. It was hard. But you can see the rather incredible impact that makes. I thought that was cool, but I weighed the results against my desire to eat sugar and went back to eating sugar. But still, after 6 months of CrossFit alone I see more definition in my legs and a good fit self to be proud of. The posture from the side pictures is my favorite part. I could potentially be leaner if I went back to not eating sugar, but I make that decision on a cupcake by cupcake basis.